Integration of gestures and speech in human-robot interaction

We present an approach to enhance the interaction abilities of the Nao humanoid robot by extending its communicative behavior with non-verbal gestures (hand and head movements, and gaze following). A set of non-verbal gestures were identified that Nao could use for enhancing its presentation and turn-management capabilities in conversational interactions. We discuss our approach for modeling and synthesizing gestures on the Nao robot. A scheme for system evaluation that compares the values of users´ expectations and actual experiences has been presented. We found that open arm gestures, head movements and gaze following could significantly enhance Nao´s ability to be expressive and appear lively, and to engage human users in conversational interactions.